Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Well, my little sister's wedding has come and gone. It was beautiful, wonderful, fun, great . . . all the things a wedding should be. It was also extremely busy because it was at my parents' house (which we were also staying at for 5 days because we live out of town) and EVERYONE in my little family was involved in the ceremony (except Kiwi) as well as in the setup and tear down. In blog terms that means that I finally have time to tell you about the whole *tie* thing.

Support and suggestions on how to fix said tie were not overflowing, but I did get a little encouragement from my friend, Hilary, so I thought I would do a little follow up. Because I said I would.

Sorry for those of you just simply *dying* to know how I did this step by step via a picture tutorial, but I will try to recollect the best I can in case someone does need guidance on how to shorten a clip on tie (or even a regular one if needs be). As it turns out I put this off really until the critical moment because I was so afraid I would screw it up, that I just couldn't manage the figuring out AND the proper photo documenting of the steps. But here's the gist:

I had a tie that was the size that I wanted which I kept next to me for reference. It came in handy multiple times, but if you have any other tie in the world hanging around it would still be a good thing to keep nearby.

Very hesitantly, I snipped off the little thread that tacked the tie together in the back. You can see it pictured below for reference. It's that one right above the V there.

I laid my right-sized tie next to my too-long tie and ripped out all the stitches going straight up the back up a little past the point where I wanted the too-long tie to ultimately end up. This whole thing made me very nervous, but my back up plan was just to fold and pin, so I figured it really couldn't be worse than that. The bottom (no matter the final state it ended up in) would be hidden behind his little vest so at the absolute worst I just wouldn't be able to re-sell it when the wedding was over.

At this point I kind of opened the whole bottom of the thing up and unfolded it to get an idea of how it came together in the first place. I took many mental pictures but no physical ones. Sorry. You can kinda see in that first photo up on top of this post the piece I ended up whacking off of it so I kept that next to me for reference on how to refold the thing.

Then I did my best to fold it all back up in there. Mr. Skooks laughed at me while I was doing this because I just kept saying, "I don't know what I'm DOING" with each word raising a decibel as I went along. It became a bad song after several repeats of that sentence.

I held it all in place as best as I could and dragged the whole production over to the iron where I steamed the crap out of it. Would probably be best to check your fabric and make sure you won't ruin it to use steam, but my tie was satin and this worked fine for me (though I did employ a press cloth just to be safe).

Then I used some matching thread and just whip stitched the open end closed. I was fairly certain this would really give it away that I had modified it. Surprisingly it didn't look too bad after all. Maybe Perhaps Perchance if someone wasn't analyzing the bottom of it, they might not know it had been tinkered with MAYBE at all. ;)

And that's it. I really didn't feel like being all that precise with the little piece of tie that hangs behind the whole thing so I just cut it off in a straight line, tucked it inside itself, pressed it well, and whip stitched it closed. I really felt fine about this because my "example" tie that I was using for reference was cut off just the same way!

So there's your mini-tutorial on how to shorten a clip on tie. It can be done. I did it. Go forth and do likewise.

In other news, the taking in of LM's flower girl dress (can you believe this was her 6th wedding as a flower girl and she is only 5 years old?!) and subsequent jazzing up with some sweet little trim was a much easier project. Mostly because I broke all the rules of "taking something in" properly and just pinched and sewed. No taking apart of lining and doing *any of it* remotely properly. Need to take something in? Especially something that will only be worn 1 time? Cheat away. It's fine. I won't tell anyone. Read more...

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

While I would have loved to sew my kindergartener a brand new backpack this year, it just wasn't in the cards. Between baby stuff, Kee-ku's foray into potty-training, and just general summer busy-ness, that dream just withered and died.

Fortunately, I don't go gentle into that good night.

I scored a brand new plain backpack off eBay for $8 shipped. I don't know if you have gone backpack shopping lately, but these things are generally not too cheap so I was pretty pleased with myself about this.

Next I fused some Wonder Under onto a piece of the same Folklorico fabric I used for LM's new lunchbox, isolated and cut out a little motif therein, and ironed it onto the backpack.

Originally I was going to fuse a larger piece onto the back underneath that zipper, but since I also was going to need to stitch around it for durability, I went a bit smaller and took it above the zipper line.

It satisfied my inner "I want the two bags to coordinate" without becoming obnoxious. :)

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

It feels like eons since I've been a part of a swap or won a giveaway. No more! Lucky me, I just kinda hit that jackpot and got both at the same time. :)

Ever heard of Diane at From Blank Pages? That creative gal thought it would be fun to do a traveling charm swap, the idea being that a pack of charms would travel to a home where the recipient would take out what they wanted, replenish the stack with some more charms, and then send it along to someone else. And then that person would do the same and send it on to the next person and so on and so on.

Oh, happy day to me . . . I became the most recent beneficiary after entering Tiffany's giveaway at the last charm pack's home - Pinks Sweet Treats.

I've been involved in some charm swaps in the past, and I have a nice little stash going. But as it goes with these things, while they are all lovely some things are more your style than others. I mean, am I right? So here was a perfect chance to pick up a few pieces that are more my style and pass along a few that are less *me* to someone who would more appreciate their charm (har har). I just love this idea.

Love it.

Here are a few pics of the bits of joy I took from the pile. A sweet pink-y stack (that one on the right totally reminds me of all the delicate pretty stuff over at NanaCompany):

Would you like to be the next recipient of a charming stack of fabric sweets? Check the rules. If you qualify, please leave me a comment below to be entered into the giveaway/swap:

winners must be active bloggers

you must reside in the US (this is the RED pack for those of you following along on the map)

before sending the charm pack off to the next winner, there must be
56 - 5" x 5" squares of fabric inside - please no yucky fabrics

to help keep the map updated, winners will fill out the quick and easy form to let Diane know where you are!

if the charm pack arrives full of unwanted charms, let Diane know and she 'll clear it out and fill it back up with some more beautiful fabrics! (Good to know that even if you aren't feeling what comes to you, there is a chance to get something more your style!)

please make sure you are not a no-reply blogger. If you're not sure what that means, please make sure and leave me your email address in your comment so I have a way to contact you!

That's it! Here's the replenished stack that could be on its way to you:

I'll close the comments and draw a winner in one week (Wednesday, September 12th at NOON).